This consulting company is the best place to work for, according to Glassdoor reviews

Bain & Company — a consulting firm headquartered in Boston — has dethroned Facebook as the top company to work for, according to Glassdoor reviews.

Glassdoor's chief economist Andrew Chamberlain said Bain & Co. has a high-performance environment with a strong emphasis on culture and entrepreneurship, which helped push it to the top.

"People feel like it's more than just a job," he added. "It may not necessarily be the place with the best work-life balance, but it is the place where you get to work on really amazing projects."

Glassdoor, a website where employees can leave anonymous reviews about a company, has put out annual rankings of the country's top best places to work for the past 11 years.

"We're working really hard to try and reinvent the way that people get hired and that they find jobs," Glassdoor CEO Robert Hohman told us about the company's mission. "It's so inefficient, still, this dance that we go through to get a job."

Qualities the highest-ranking companies have in common, according to their employees, include a mission-driven culture; smart and collaborative colleagues; strong perks and benefits; and employees who feel valued.

“These are often headed by CEOS who are nice enough to say hi to you in the elevator,” Chamberlain noted. “And are people who employees believe in as leaders at the helm.”

While a variety of industries, like retail and manufacturing, are represented on the list, tech and health care dominated. The likes of Google (No. 8), Apple (No. 71), St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (No. 13), NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (No. 64), and Kaiser Permanente (No. 98) made it on there.

“[Health care] is becoming more technologically focused, rather than practiced focus. So to attract that talent, health care employers are having to do the same things that tech employers have long done — which is improve culture to attract those people,” Chamberlain explained.

Chamberlain said that employees are “everything” at tech and consulting companies and are “basically almost all the assets of the firm.”

Facebook, which held the top spot last year, fell to No. 7.

The drop comes amid a rocky year for the social media giant. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the British data firm Cambridge Analytica harvested personal information from Facebook’s users to target voters during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. And just this month, the New York Times reported that Facebook previously hired a Republican opposition-research firm to discredit protesters.

“External criticism definitely has impacted its culture, and satisfaction among some employees,” Chamberlain said. “Having said that though, still being among the top 10 best places to work is still very good overall.”

In-N-Out nabbed the third spot, the only restaurant to make in the top 10 list and one of only two fast food chains to make the top 100.

“Within the industry, for people who are working at In-N-Out, think of the landscape of other employers they could possibly go to," Chamberlain said. "And in that respect, In-N-Out shines."

The reasons people cite for enjoying their work at the burger chain include its pay and benefits.

Glassdoor data show that associates make an average of $12 an hour, while the California Sun says the average yearly pay for managers is $160,000. (The median pay for workers in the food and beverage industry, last year, was $9.81 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Chamberlain added that they have a strong mission, which is “serving this high-quality product, served in a warm and friendly manner.”

Glassdoor’s list has received criticism, with some arguing that the lists don’t measure the quality of their employees’ lives, and that employees may be limited by the workplace experiences they’ve had.

“They’ve been rewarded for working long hours while sacrificing other aspects of their lives, including time with their families and time for themselves,” wrote the New York Times.

Scott Dobroski, senior director of corporate communications at Glassdoor, pointed out that work-balance is one of the factors that the list measures — it’s stopped some companies from cracking their top 100 list.

And there are companies where its other advantages just happen to outweigh that metric for employees, like those at Facebook.

Lauren Rivera, an associate professor of management & organizations at Northwestern University, said technology (like smartphones) have made the line between work and home increasingly blurry.

"People are constantly on their phones checking for personal things — but also checking work things," she said. "In the U.S., more so than in other countries, we believe that work is life."

Don’t miss out! Right now, you can get the brand new Marketplace “Liquid assets” water bottle as your thank-you gift when you give just $5/month. This is a limited opportunity, so don’t delay — become a Marketplace Investor TODAY!